State media in the United Arab Emirates say four UAE soldiers have been killed in a helicopter crash in Yemen.

WAM news agency reported early Saturday that the soldiers were participating in a Saudi-led campaign targeting Shi'ite rebels in Yemen.

WAM said the helicopter crash happened in Yemen's southern Shabwa province where U.S. airstrikes have targeted Yemen's local al-Qaida branch.

The Saudi-led coalition is fighting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from the air and on the ground.

The rebels seized Sana'a in 2015, forcing the internationally recognized Yemeni government into exile to Saudi Arabia before it returned to the Yemeni port of Aden.

U.N. officials said recently 80 percent of Yemen's population is in desperate need of food, clean water and medical care. A cholera outbreak has killed more than 1,700 people since April with more than 320,000 suspected cases.